Convicted murderer claims B.C. prison wrongfully took books including ‘Mein Kampf’

VANCOUVER — A convicted murderer who kept his victim’s severed head in a bucket claims prison authorities in British Columbia are wrongfully withholding books he has acquired during his life sentence, including Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”

Mihaly Illes was convicted of first-degree murder in 2011 for the death of Javan Dowling, a drug-trade associate who was shot four times in the back of the head in April 2001 before his body was dismembered and disposed of in Squamish, B.C.

Illes filed an application in the Federal Court of Canada in March after exhausting prisoner grievance procedures, claiming authorities at Kent Institution in Agassiz, B.C., wrongfully withheld 19 non-fiction books when he was transferred there in 2022.

His application says the 19 books at issue “cover topics related to philosophy, politics, and current affairs,” and he collected them “in accordance with Correctional Service Canada (CSC) rules, regulations, and directives.”

Illes claims he’s been housed at “various” prisons throughout his sentence and was allowed to keep the books even while serving time at maximum security institutions.

Documents filed in court show the books include Machiavelli’s “The Prince on the Art of Power,” Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” Adolf Hitler’s autobiography “Mein Kampf,” “The 48 Laws of Power,” “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” “The CIA as Organized Crime,” “The Lie that Wouldn’t Die: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” as well as biographies of Alexander the Great, Hitler and Napoleon.

Prison authorities put the books in storage and deemed them “unauthorized materials” covered by a Correctional Service of Canada Commissioner’s directive outlining offenders’ access to “expressive materials.”

Inmates are generally allowed access to books and other materials, but limitations include “material that supports genocide, promotes a theory of racial superiority or incites hatred toward any identifiable group or subpopulation,” the directive states.

Correctional Service of Canada policy and regulations also allow prison officials to limit offenders’ access to materials if they believe they would contribute “to an unhealthy working and living environment” or if they “would jeopardize the security of the penitentiary or the safety of any person.”

Illes’ lawyer Sam Williams said in an email that his client is a Hungarian national of Jewish descent.

Williams said he would try to contact his client for a statement, but there was no reply in time for publication.

The Correctional Service of Canada and Kent Institution also did not provide comment for this story by press time.

Illes’ application says the prohibition on him possessing the books is unreasonable and procedurally unfair, and he wants “an order requiring the Correctional Service of Canada to allow the applicant to maintain possession of the books.”

Illes successfully challenged his transfer from a medium-security prison in Alberta to a maximum security facility in Manitoba in 2016 in the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta.

The Alberta court ruling says he’d been placed in segregation in May 2015 “after being found in possession of possible narcotics, two stabbing weapons and numerous unauthorized items.”

He was again placed in segregation in January 2016 “for his involvement in the institutional subculture and attempts to introduce contraband into the institution.”

The court ruling says Illes is eligible for full parole in November 2026 and will be ordered deported back to Hungary upon release.

The Correctional Service of Canada has announced numerous seizures of contraband and unauthorized items at prisons in B.C. and elsewhere this year, including “unidentified pills and other drug paraphernalia, several home‑made weapons, and tattoo paraphernalia” at Abbotsord’s Matsqui Institution after a lockdown this month.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 28, 2025.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press